Communication skills that are indispensable for the leap of IT engineers

Have you ever felt helpless because the people around you didn’t understand you, even though you were trying hard to convey it? On the other hand, the senior engineer reported it quickly, which is amazing! cool! Have you ever thought?

Often, the only thing that doesn’t convey your explanation well is to include information that is unnecessary for the other party and simply state it in a vague manner. Therefore, this time, I will tell you how to improve “reports and explanations that cannot be communicated”.

Trends and problems when not transmitted explained by IT engineers

It’s my rule of thumb, but in situations where it doesn’t get through, it often applies to one of the following:

1. I’m talking about everything that happened in chronological order.
2. E-mails and forms are completely black. There are few margins.
3. The supplement (preface) to explain the main subject is detailed and long.

These trends have the following problems.

1. Some information is necessary for the other party, but some information is unnecessary (maybe many people do not need it?)
2. The other party has to search for important information (but it is difficult to find many characters)
3. The main subject does not start (I cannot grasp the essence of things)

Why do you say you have such a problem?

The reason is that the information that the recipient needs is buried in unnecessary information.

The subject in the report/explanation must be the recipient. If the recipient does not understand, the report/explanation will be incomplete.

The person receiving the report does not want to know everything. I want the material to judge the situation.

Solution to tell

So how can we improve it?
The solution is to summarize only the information that the other party needs (= summary).

To summarize only the necessary information means to turn it over and delete the unnecessary information. This ensures that the recipient is not confused by unnecessary information. It is less difficult to understand and faster to understand. This effect is greater than you can imagine, and when the other person understands it, the discussion concentrates on what you want to talk about, and the story goes on and on.

This summarizing ability is a skill that must be refined through repeated trial and error.
Please refer to the following points and repeat the practice to improve.

Points to acquire summarization ability

There are three points to acquiring the ability to summarize.

1. Have a standard for summarizing (standard = information required by the other party)
2. Narrow down what you want to convey (discard unnecessary information)
3. Summarize in your own words (do not use (or look up) words or terms you do not understand)

1. Have a standard for summarizing (standard = information required by the other party)

Consider the information required by the other party after considering the situation of the report/explanation and the position of the other party. By thinking about what kind of action you want the other person to take based on your report and explanation, you can see the information that should be provided to the other person.

Example)
Work report ⇒ Work delay / I want you to consult about the solution to each problem in the field
↓ The information (standard) required by the other party is …

1. Background of work delay and countermeasures
2. Background of problems in the field and countermeasures

As mentioned above, by having the information (standard) that the other party needs, you can see the information that the other party does not need.

2. Narrow down what you want to convey (discard unnecessary information)

It can be applied to a wide range of situations by narrowing down the following three points.

• theme
• message
• Support (Background / Purpose / Reason / Case)

“theme”

Please be as specific as possible about the theme (subject, agenda) you want to convey to the other party.
If you are working on a work report, you should focus on what you are talking about as a work report.

Example) When reporting
work Theme: Status of work delays and countermeasures (Expectations for the other party: Consultation on countermeasures for work delays)
Theme: Problems in the field (Expectations for the other party: Consultation on solutions to problems)

Please note that once you have decided on a theme, be careful not to mix the contents.
For example, if you talk about risks (problems that may occur) while talking about the problems that are occurring in the field, there is a risk that the theme will change or the problems and risks will be misrepresented. there is. If you talk about two things, make sure they are on different themes.

Also, if the theme you want to convey is unclear, little information will be conveyed.
Please be careful here as well. If the theme is “work report”, the recipient of the report will be confused about what is said as “work report” and what kind of advice should be given.

“message”

Tell them your thoughts and expectations about the theme. By refraining from making requests to the other party, the completion of reporting and explanation will be delayed. Requests to the other party may require courage while you are not used to it. However, it is an important factor when communicating.

Example) Message in the work report
Theme: Status of work delay (reporting partner: boss)
Message: Since the delay has occurred due to an estimation error, I would like you to increase the number of staff
. I want you to postpone

Theme: Problems in the field (reporting partner: boss)
Message: Work does not proceed due to lack of skills, so I would like you to hold a course by skill masters

Even if a problem occurs, if there is a prospect of self-solving, the support of the other party is not necessary. In that case, you can present your thoughts and seek advice and approval. If you need help from others or have a consultation, it is important to state your request. In that case, simply express the core of the request and make it easy to understand.

“support”

Information to convince the other party about the message. It is desirable to show it based on facts (data) as much as possible. If you don’t know the facts, you can state that it is not the case and then show your hypothesis.

If you are wondering if you don’t need it, leave it as follows.

• In the case of sentences, add it to the end as remarks or reference information
• In the case of verbal, keep it as handheld data and show it when necessary

3. Summarize in your own words (do not use [or look up] words or terms you do not understand)

In many cases, reports and explanations are not communicated once. At that time, there are many things that the other person can understand by paraphrasing or giving examples. The important thing is to have a correct and deep understanding of the information you need to convey. Unless you understand the meaning of words and the situation of the problem correctly, you cannot explain it to others in an easy-to-understand manner.

Being ahead of your ability to summarize

To tell the truth, I was ashamed to say that I was not good at communication skills even after more than 10 years as an engineer. At one point, I realized the importance of summarizing power and gradually refined it. Thanks to you, I feel that my ability to summarize has improved considerably compared to myself in the past. Lastly, I would like to mention the changes that have occurred to me.

• I was able to understand the contents of the report smoothly.
• Reporting time has been shortened
• The appeal points became clearer and more praised.
• As a result, I no longer dislike reports that I disliked until then.

Short and organized stories are easy to understand.

If the other person understands quickly, the other person will give an opinion quickly.
I also felt that communication was good.
I was very happy with this feeling.

I would like to conclude the first session with the hope that the “suffering that cannot be transmitted” will be transformed into the “joy that is transmitted” for those who feel that they are not good at communication skills.

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